Saltine Challenge: Can you eat 6 saltines in a minute?

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  We've had an overabundance of snow days this winter and the kids are actually getting tired of all the days off school.  When they don't want to play outside anymore and cabin fever is setting in, I've had to reach deep into my bag of tricks to keep us all sane and entertained.

Here was a little trick that brought lots of laughs (along with a few crumbs)...

This trick was from way back in my college days.  My friends and I learned about it somehow, then challenged people every chance we got.  In all the times we presented the challenge, we never had anyone who was able to do it (and we won tons of free meals and free drinks in the process!).

You most likely have the supplies on hand, a box of saltine crackers (salted, not unsalted), a timer, and some willing participants.

The challenge is simple... all you have to do is eat (and swallow) the six saltines before the minute timer goes off without getting a drink of water.  You can eat them one at a time, two at a time, or even all six at once.  It sounds easy and you might be feeling pretty confident after the first one or two.  However, you'll soon find that the salt produces extra saliva but then the dry crackers quickly absorb any and all moisture in your mouth.  By the time you get to the last cracker or two, you'll be laughing and crumbs will be flying everywhere.

Check out the fun the girls had with their friend...

We did have to run the vacuum to sweep up some crumbs, but it was a fun little break and brought lots of laughter and giggles.

Fun Trick: Poke Pencils through a Plastic Bag of Water

We've had several snow days lately and this was the perfect quick and easy little trick to entertain the kids.  You more than likely have everything you need on hand and the kids can do it multiple times and still be thrilled by 

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Check it out...

 All you need is a ziploc bag, water, and some sharpened pencils (or wooden skewers, etc)

Once your bag is filled with water, simply push the sharpened end of the pencil straight through.  If you do it fairly smoothly, the bag will seal itself around the pencil and no water will leak out.  (However, I do recommend doing it over the sink or have a towel handy just in case.)  We found that if you change direction midway through or start poking through the back and then hesitate, you might spring a leak.  Most of the time, though, the pencil goes in one side and out the other without even a drip of water!!

It's lots of fun and we had a good time seeing just how many pencils we could put through before we got a leak.

There's some science behind this little trick.  We learned about the polymers in the plastic bag stretching without breaking here on Steve Spangler Science, but it was really just about the fun.

You can check out the fun in action in this little video...

You can see we did have a little leak at the end.  As we were rushing to get the bag over the sink, I said we may have done it too fast.  Instead, I think the last pencil came too close to one of the other holes and the plastic in that section just wasn't strong enough to seal around the hole.  Still fun, though!

Make-Your-Own Lollipops

We made these yummy lollipops at my daughter's recent Tie-Dye Birthday party.  They were a fun little treat for the girls, but they were so easy, they'd be a fun little treat to make anytime.

Check them out...

Now look at how easy they are to make!

Here's what you need...

* Hard candy (photo shows Jolly Ranchers and Lifesavers, but I found that the Jolly Ranchers "melted" the best)

* parchment paper (affiliate link) - found in the baking aisle

* a hard object (to smash the candies)

* sturdy plastic bags (small freezer bags worked great)

* lollipop sticks (affiliate link) - found in                                                   the cake decorating section of most craft stores




Here's what to do...

1. Unwrap your candies and separate by colors in your plastic bags.  Close up your bags then use a hard object to smash your candies into smaller pieces.  ( I used a large wrench ).  You don't want to pulverize them into candy dust, but a variety of smaller-sized chunks.  

2.  For our party, I put the crushed candies in a divided tray so the girls could easily scoop out each color, but you could just go straight from the plastic bags if you want.

3.  Cut a piece of parchment paper to be the size of your cookie sheet, then draw circles with Sharpies to be the guidelines for your lollipop size and placement.  (they do spread out a decent amount, so leave some room between each lollipop)  Flip your parchment paper over so the actual marker circles are underneath, but you can still see the shape - that way the Sharpie doesn't bleed onto your actual candy.

 

4.  Preheat your oven to 225*.  Then allow the kids to scoop out the colors/flavors of the choices and mound them onto the circle shapes.  If you're doing this with more than one kid, allow them to write their name in Sharpie next to their lollipops.

5.  Put your tray into your preheated 225* oven for approximately 10 minutes, or until candies are melted.  

6.  Carefully take out your tray and immediately add your lollipop sticks, rolling them in the melted candy to completely coat the top part of the stick.  Note:  The lollipops will harden quickly, so move pretty fast with this step.

You'll notice that some lollipops were unevenly melted, that was the Lifesavers candies.

I'd recommend just sticking with the Jolly Ranchers, or doing a test batch 

with other varieties of candy.

7.  The lollipops will be cooled and hardened in less than 5-10 minutes.  Just peel them off the parchment paper and they're ready to enjoy!

Sharing our lollipops at:
Tatertots and Jello
The Frugal Girls

How to Tie Dye with Acrylic Paints

When we were brainstorming different ideas for my 8-year old daughter's birthday party, we quickly settled upon having a tie dye theme.  In case you haven't been around 8 year olds lately, they can be all about tie-dye, peace signs, hearts and rainbows, so it seemed like the perfect plan.

However, once I thought about it a little more, I was worried it would be tricky to pull off.  Regular tie-dying often involves presoaking the fabric, dying it, wrapping it up and waiting several hours before rinsing it out.  That definitely would be tricky to pull off in a 3-hour time frame for our party.  Plus, it's often recommended to use 100% cotton fabrics, and that would rule out the pillowcases and socks we were hoping to tie dye.

Luckily, we decided on an alternative that worked out really well...  using watered-down acrylic paints instead of regular dye.

Check it out...

That rainbow of bottles was filled with the watered-down paint that was really easy to use and all those colorful shirts and pillowcases were ready to take home at the end of the party.  (NOTE:  They were still a little damp, but we simply put them in plastic bags as the girls left and they hung them up to finish drying when they got home.)

Here's what you'll need:

 * plastic squeeze bottles ( found ours in Walmart in the food storage section, but spray bottles could also work)

* acrylic paints (they're available in tons of colors and are often less than $1 a bottle)

* fabric textile medium ( found with the acrylic paints in most craft stores)  Optional but I'd recommend it

* smocks and containers to catch the paint (We use disposable lab coats as smocks and they're awesome!)

* variety of items to dye ( we did pillowcases, t-shirts, and socks) and rubber bands



Here's what to do...

1.  Add the water and fabric textile medium to your acrylic paint.  The textile medium is optional but it helps to soften up the paint so the shirt is not as stiff when it's dry.   For each of the colors, I poured  one bottle of acrylic paint and half a bottle of the textile medium into the squeeze containers.  Then I filled up the empty acrylic bottle three times with water and added that in.  (So the ratio is 1/2 part textile medium, 1 part paint, 3 parts water - but you can experiment with your own ratios)  Then shake well to mix. 

2.  Repeat with the other colors you'll be using on your shirts, pillowcases, etc.  (That's the other awesome thing about using acrylic paints, there are sooo many colors available so it's a lot easier to find the perfect colors for you)

3. If you're doing this for a party or group of kids, you'll want to get all your supplies together and try to minimize the mess.  Because the paint will stain clothes once it dries, I gave each of the girls a smock.  I actually used these disposable lab coats (affiliate link) and they worked great to really cover all their clothes. 

I covered my tables with plastic tablecloths.  Then  put out bowls of rubber bands and some spray bottles on one table and then the paints, trays and rubber gloves on another.

4.  Next it was time to get dying!  I had the girls lightly mist their shirts, pillowcases or socks with a spray bottle of water, then put on the rubber bands.   (I had to help some of them with the rubber banding step)  Once everything was all tied up, they were ready for the color.  I instructed the kids to hold the tip up the bottle right up against the fabric so the color went into the fabric instead of squirting everywhere, but we did do each color over the disposable pans so I could collect any extra paint and put it back in the containers.

A few tips I gave the kids...

* Try to stick to two or three colors for the best effects.
* Try not to put yellow/purple, blue/orange, or red/green next to each other or they may mix together to make a yucky brown.
* Try to make sure you get plenty of paint in each area, but not so much that it's dripping off or it'll run into the other colors.

5.  When the items were dyed, we put them on plastic trays and tablecloths to soak in and set the colors.  After about an hour, I took off the rubberbands and held up each masterpiece so the kids could "oooh" and "ahhh" as their designs were revealed.  I hung up each piece so it could dry a little before it was time to take it home.

(NOTE:  Most of the items were just wet, but some of the girls went a little overboard and their items were still pretty sopping wet when I undid the rubber bands.  I simply squeezed them a little with an old towel to sop up some of the extra liquid so they weren't actually dripping onto my deck while they dried.)

Our finished products...

I instructed the parents to allow the items to dry then throw them in the dryer to heat set the colors.  After that, you can wash the items just as you would your regular t-shirts or pillow cases.

One final note about fabrics.  One of the good things about acrylic paints is that they'll "stick" even if the fabric is not 100% cotton.  Some of the pillowcases we used were a 60/40 cotton blend and others were microfiber (all synthetic).  The colors on the microfiber ones didn't seem as bright as on the cotton blend.  It may have been the combination of colors used, but I'd recommend staying away from microfiber items or testing it out first if you want more vibrant colors. 



Check out all the other fun foods and activities from our Tie Dye Birthday Party HERE.

Sharing our tie dye tips at:

Tatertots and Jello
The Frugal Girls

Tie Dye Birthday Party

Last week my "baby" turned 8!  To celebrate, we had a small party here at the house with a tie-dye theme.  My birthday girls and her friends had a fun time, had some yummy and colorful treats and left with some cool little projects.  In this post I'll share an overview of the party's projects and treats, with links to full posts with all the details.  (Click on the photo or the links in the descriptions for the full posts!)

First, let's start with the food...

Though I have very little cake decorating experience and have been just making cupcakes for all of our recent parties, I did make this tie-dye cake that turned out pretty cool.  

I just used boxed cake mix, canned frosting and food coloring and I only used a regular rubber spatula and spoon for the decorating, but it turned out well enough to impress a bunch of 8 year olds.  The inside of the cake is even "tie-dyed" as well ~ pretty cool!  (Full post HERE)

 I also made some Trix Krispie Treats.  They were super easy to make and much more colorful than regular Rice Krispie Treats (yummier than the regular ones too!)  They even had a tie-dye effect with the swirls in the cereal pieces.   (Read the full post HERE)

Our next treat was actually a combination of a party activity and a yummy sweet to take take home.  We made our own lollipops.  They weren't quite tie-dye, but they were colorful and fun to make.  (HERE's the full post with the easy directions)

Finally, to counteract all the sweets that we were going to be eating, I served some fruit too.  Since I was already using my divided container for the make-your-own lollipop station, my daughter and I decided to use the shirt cake pan as a fruit tray.  She even helped me arrange the berries and grapes in a tie dye pattern.

If you squint your eyes just right, it kind of has a tie-dye effect, doesn't it? ;)

Now of course, a tie-dye party wouldn't really be a party without some actual tie-dying, right?  For the main event, each girl had the chance to dye her own t-shirt, pillowcase, and pair of socks.   I wanted to make sure everything would be ready to take home at the end of the party, so using regular dye was ruled out.  ( Most dye kits require pre-soaking, then waiting several hours after dying before unwrapping and rinsing. )  Instead, we used watered-down acrylic paints as our "dye".   We were able to choose from a whole variety of colors, we didn't have to use 100% cotton items, and everything was ready to go at the end of our 3 hour party!  (Full post with directions can be found HERE)

Check out the fun...

Get all the directions for tie-dying with acrylic paints HERE!

Overall, the party was a huge hit.  The girls were happy with their finished projects and they enjoyed all the little treats.

 Sharing our party at:

Tatertots and Jello
The Frugal Girls

Funny Beach Photo Idea

The kids and I just returned from a little mini vacation at the Jersey Shore with my sister and her family.  The kids had a blast with their cousins and I was excited to snap this funny photo "capturing" the cousins under a huge sand bucket.

Check it out...

I originally saw the idea on Pinterest from THIS Flickr photo.  My photography skills aren't as good as the original, but it was a simple shot to capture.  I just asked the kids to go a little ways down the beach, then held the beach bucket in my left hand and the camera in my right.  I told the kids to pretend something was attacking them from above (which they gladly acted out).  Because I just used the auto focus on my camera, I had to lock the focus on the kids, then move the bucket into the shot (otherwise the kids would have been too blurry and the bucket would be in sharp focus).   I got a few funny looks from other beachgoers, but it was worth it for this cute photo.

Coloring Hair with Chalk Pastels

I'd seen this idea for using chalk pastels to color hair several times over the past year or so, but I finally had the perfect opportunity to test it out when the kids were visiting their cousins last week.  I searched again on Pinterest,  found this tutorial at Little Pink Monster and ran out to the craft store to pick up some soft chalk pastels.

Check out the fun hair...

The girls loved it and it was really easy and inexpensive.

Here's what we did...

First, I picked up this set of soft chalk pastels (Amazon affiliate link) at the craft store, using a 40% off coupon it was less than $5!

Next we got to work putting colorful streaks in the girls' hair.

1.  We brushed their hair to get rid of any tangles and the girls chose a color.
2.  I took a section of hair where we wanted color and dampened it with a wet paper towel, then rubbed the pastel over the section.  A spray bottle of water would also work well.
3.  I rubbed the pastel over the section a few more times, trying to get the color somewhat even from root to tip.
4.  Finally, we used a flat iron (could also use a curling iron) to "dry" the hair and heat set the color.

Look at all these funky hair streaks on the cousins...

A few tips, suggestions and observations ...

1.  Make sure you get chalk pastels not oil pastels.  Chalk pastels usually have flat sides and no wrappers.  Oil pastels have rounded sides and a wrapper like a crayon.  Oil pastels would most probably make a mess in your hair.  The ones we used were soft chalk pastels which I think might have more pigment than regular chalk pastels. (but I'm not totally sure on that)

2.  We used a flat iron, but you could also use a curling iron or possibly even a hair dryer.  It really helped to heat set the color so it wasn't dripping down on their faces or clothes.

3.  Even with the heat setting, some colors did leave a little residue on fingers and foreheads (especially the pinks and reds).  It didn't bother the girls at all, but it's worth noting.

4.  The chalked colors did wash out of the hair with regular shampoo.  It came out easily from the darker-haired cousins, but took one shampoo and then a swim in the pool before it came out of my oldest daughter's hair.  Her hair is lighter, pretty fine and I used quite a bit of the pink pastel in it.  It didn't bother her (or me) since it was summer and we had no plans that required color free hair, however, you might want to test the colors you want on a small section if you're worried about wash-ability.

Colored Salt Hearts

Things have been very busy here at my house, so I haven't been posting nearly as much as I'd like.  That's why I'm thrilled to have a really neat guest poster here today to share a fun little craft that's just perfect for Valentine's Day.

I'm Tricia from Two Big Two Little, where I share crafts and activities that I do with my children. My kids range in age from 1 to 15, so we usually have a variety of end results to everything.   I'm very excited to be guest posting here at Come Together Kids today.
Quite a while ago I saw a pin on Pinterest for Coloured Salt Glitter. I thought it would be great to be able to make my own glitter. We love glitter around here, but I get frustrated when I end up cleaning more of it up than what gets used. I finally got around to trying it out. While it certainly didn't make glitter, it does make very pretty coloured salt. To make the coloured salt, put some salt in a ziploc bag, put in a few drops of food colouring or liquid water colours and mix well. Spread the salt evenly on a cookie sheet. I put it on some waxed paper to keep the colours separate.Then bake in the oven for about ten minutes at 350 degrees. You can also let it air dry. I think that as long as you used food colouring to colour the salt, the salt would still be edible. Wouldn't that make some neat looking food?

 


 I had bought a few salt shakers from the dollar store to hold the coloured salt. As I wasn't sure how this would turn out, I didn't make much of each colour.

I set these out for Sammie along with some glue and foam hearts.  I showed her how the salt would stick to the glue and make pretty pictures. She immediately tried it out for herself. She asked for a popsicle stick to help spread the glue all over the heart.

She started shaking salt like crazy all over her heart, using a bit of all of the colours.

I highly recommend doing this craft on a tray of some sort, so that any extra salt can be collected and reused or thrown out when your kids are done.

When the first one was all covered with salt, she started another one. For this one, she drew with the glue and then covered it with the salt.




She ended up making quite a few of these and Maddie ended up joining in to make a couple of them.

 We have found that these do not keep very well, as the salt will start to come off as the glue dries. It will also rub off if touched. So you might to warn your child before hand that this will not be a keeper craft. Be sure to take lots of pictures if they would like to be able to keep them. The girls really liked using the coloured salt to make this colourful hearts. I need to make more coloured salt now lol. I can also think of lots more ideas to use the coloured salt for. Watch for more posts to come on Two Big Two Little that will use the coloured salt :)



Tricia is a stay at home mom to 4 great kids, two big kids aged 15 & 13 and two little kids aged 4 and 1. She shares craft, activities and some DIY posts that she does mainly with her girls, one big and one little, although every once in a while the big and little boys join in on the fun :) Her blog is Two Big Two Little and you can also find her at her Facebook page, and Pinterest boards. She is also a newcomer to Twitter

Thanks so much for sharing, Tricia!  I'd seen the same idea on Pinterest and wasn't sure how it would turn out.  Thank you for giving it a test run and showing the fun your little ones had with the project. 

Toilet Paper Snowman Game

Here's the last of our activities from our Cousins Christmas party and the one that the kids thought was the most fun.  After everyone played the Roll-A-Snowman game and enjoyed their Snowman Sundaes,  I got the supplies ready for this super silly activity.

Check out these funny toilet paper snowmen...

Here's all we needed:

• rolls of toilet paper (I used the cheap 4 packs from the Dollar Store)
• construction paper circles for the buttons
• construction paper triangles for the noses
• piece of fleece for a scarf ( I originally planned on using crepe paper, but I didn't have any on hand, so I raided my fabric bins for some leftover fleece pieces)
• tape

You could also add hats or other snowman accessories.

Here's what we did:

The kids paired up so there was one "builder" and one "snowman".  (You could easy do it in larger teams too).  I gave each team a fresh roll of toilet paper, 3 circles with a piece of tape on the back, a triangle nose also with tape, and a scarf.   They had to use up the whole roll of toilet paper to wrap up their partner like a snowman, then tape on the buttons, wrap on the scarf and finally tape on the nose.   

We did it loosely as a race to see which team was finished first, but really it was just for fun.  After all the snowmen were complete, the kids had fun ripping off all the toilet paper.  Then I gave each team a fresh roll and the other person got the chance to be wrapped up and transformed into a snowman!

Roll-A-Snowman game (with printable)

Last weekend, the "cousins" got together for a post Christmas celebration.  I wanted to plan a few little activities for them so they would have fun without too much chaos ( 8 kids between the ages of 2 and 10 can quickly get pretty wild! ) I've seen the idea for this roll-a-snowman game in several places, but none of them were exactly what I wanted.  Thanks to PicMonkey, I was able to make my own version and the kids had fun with it.  (It's available as a free printable at the end of the post)


Check it out...

I just printed out 8 copies and gave each child a die to roll and some crayons.  To keep the pace even, I just had them all roll their dice, follow the directions, then wait till everyone else finished.  Then, I'd tell them to roll again, add the feature, and wait a few seconds for everyone to finish again.  If they rolled a number they'd already used, they didn't draw anything for that turn.  (You could also play it so you just keep adding the features, even if you already rolled that number, and end up with snowmen who have 3 noses and 4 hats!) When the kids rolled all the numbers and completed their snowmen, they got to go into the other room to make their own Snowman Sundaes.  It was a pretty quick activity, but they all enjoyed it.

If you'd like to play the game too, just click on the photo below for a free printable. (The printable is in color, but you can print in grayscale if you'd like)

 

Sharing our printable at:

The Frugal Girls 

Faux Gingerbread Houses

With three kids, I've had many attempts at Gingerbread Houses over the years.  They love the idea of making a house out of cookies and candy, but every year we end up being disappointed by the final results.  We can never get the royal icing to actually hold the walls and roof together so the whole house ends up being lopsided, if we were even lucky enough to get it to stand up at all.  Then, that same darn royal icing ends up dripping and glopping all over the place when we try to attach the candy pieces.  If they don't get too frustrated, they do enjoy the process, but I knew I wanted to come up with a better idea for this year.

Check out our houses...

 

Don't they look cute?  They look like real gingerbread houses and they even SMELL like real gingerbread houses.  We got to plan our designs and choose fun candies to put on them.  They even have what looks like royal icing on them as decoration  ~ but we didn't have to deal with the real thing.  Best part, the girls and I had an awesome time making them.  (My son opted to let me make his while he watched his usual Sunday afternoon of football!)

Now, do you want to see what made this project so easy?  Check out what we used as our house forms...

 

That's right!  Our cute gingerbread houses started out as some unfinished birdhouses from the craft store.  

I realized that every year,  we enjoyed the process ~ designing, working with candy, snacking on some of the candies and seeing our finished houses ~ but we really never ended up actually EATING our finished, lopsided, drippy houses.  I figured, why not make an inedible house and save ourselves some of the hassle.  To add a little extra bit of fun, we scented our paint with some cinnamon so our houses actually have a slight gingerbread smell (and it really smelled awesome while we were painting them.)  For the royal icing look, we made some microwave puffy paint and to attach the candies we just used hot glue.

Here's what you'll need:

• unfinished wooden birdhouses (less than $5 a piece if you use a coupon at the craft store)
• brown acrylic paint 
• cinnamon
• paint brushes
• 1 cup of flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder (not baking soda!)
• 4 tsp. salt
• water 
• squirt bottles (we used the Wilton ones, but any squirt bottles should work)
• assorted candies (we used lots of non-chocolate candies ~ chewy Sweet tarts, gumballs, candy canes, peppermints, Mike & Ikes, etc)
• hot glue gun

Here's what to do...

The first step is to paint your houses.  We poured some brown paint into a small container and then added cinnamon for the fun scent.  Mix it together, adding some water as necessary to get the right consistency.  You'll want it a bit thicker than regular paint, but still spreadable.  Once you have your scented paint mixed up, paint away.

 

The houses looked nice and realistic and it smelled AWESOME while we were painting!

For the next step, you'll want to mix up some microwave puffy paint.  We've done this several times, but I've never posted about it.  It's really simple though.

In a bowl, mix together 1 cup of flour, 4 tsp of baking powder, and 4 tsp of salt (you can half or double the recipe if you need more or less ~ this was plenty for 3 gingerbread houses).  Next, gradually add water and stir until you have a mixture with a consistency of a thick pancake batter.  You want it squeezable but not too runny.  Put the batter in a squeeze bottle and start adding the icing details.  Now here's the cool part, after you add a few details (we did one side/section at a time), pop the house in the microwave for about 45 seconds.  The "paint" will puff up and dry instantly.  Now, you'll have a hardened icing look in just seconds. 
 (NOTE:  when we used the puffy paint on paper, we just microwaved it for about 30 seconds, on the houses, it seemed to take a bit longer about 45-60 seconds.  You'll want to start at about 30 seconds, see if your paint is setting up, then add time as needed.)

Once you have all your icing details in place, it's time to add the candies!  I allowed my 10-year old to handle her own hot gluing, but I did the gluing for my 7 year old (she gave me very precise directions on which candies went where!).

That's it!  We really had a fun time and the girls were so proud of their finished houses.  They still have a slight gingerbread smell and they look really cute.  I'm sure you could eliminate the cinnamon scent, but I figured since we had to paint them anyway, it was a fun little addition.  You could also try another type of  3-dimensional white paint for the icing details, but we loved the quick drying aspect of the puffy paint (and it really does look like icing!)

Oh, and we still got the fun of eating some of the extra candies too!

Here's one last look at a finished house...

Sharing our fun project at:
 Craft-O-Maniac
Brassy Apple 
Skip to My Lou 
Frugal Girls